Like mentioned above, the first round is, by FAR, the easiest. If you go into vMA expecting it to be a cakewalk, you will probably get discouraged really quickly. Each stage brings new challenges that need to be overcome. You will wipe repeatedly until you learn them - we all did at first. Try not to set yourself up for discouragement, because you CAN do it, you just need to be realistic about how that learning process will go so that you have a better chance of sticking with it.

Good luck!

The trash rounds of several arenas do feel easy compared to boss rounds. There are some exceptions (ice, spider, argonian and the last stage have some pretty nasty trash rounds).

Boss rounds from stages 2 onwards are also a lot harder than the first stage's boss round.

But as said, you can beat it with practice, by paying attention to what's killing you every time and changing tactics.

Stage 1 is shamefully easy compared to the rest of vMA, actually, so if you can't get past that, you're out of luck.
Hotspots for failure for veterans of vMA are Stage 5, Stage 7, and Stage 9.

You've definitely got the right mindset! It's all about practice. Definitely use the sigils and don't be worried about score since you probably won't be doing it in one sitting. And if you are doing it in one sitting, and you're not a sorc, there's a good chance you'll make the weekly leaderboard just for finishing.

Keep in mind that the speed sigil not only increases your speed, but also your recovery - if you're strapped for resources consider tapping that sigil. Defense sigil reflects/rebuffs most projectiles (the kyngalds on arena 8 and the final boss's bashable skull spamming will both be reflected at the caster, though I'm pretty sure you take nominal damage, for example).

For me, my initial big hangup was actually on Arena 2, embarrassingly enough. I hate hate HATE the blades. Add that you need to constantly be moving around due to AOEs and your move space is gimped due to the... electric thingy in the middle, and it was a pretty frustrating experience for me when I was working my way through it the first time. Still is annoying now that I'm trying to get my templar consistently running the thing.

3 and 4 weren't that bad. 4 could get annoying if I let the sentries take root, but at least when you die they clear out. 3 just slap a DOT on stranglers that pop up and kite enemies around while picking the trash off and you should be fine.

5 is where, if you're not like me and 2 is irrationally difficult for you, you're going to be bashing your head against the wall. This one, I think, is tied with 9 for most likely for you to mutter "***" under your breath as you died to some attack you didn't have time to react to, or got one-shot despite the fact that you were totally blocking. Or the *** troll runs to the other side of the *** arena while you have the *** archers and *** nereids flinging every projectile ever at you and OH what is that a fear CC that you weren't anywhere near but is causing you to run into the frigid water anyway?

This is where I use the defense sigil the most, and the only place I use the healing sigil if I use it.

(I'm not bitter.)

6 isn't so bad if you can follow mechanics and can either dodge the lightning AOE or purge snares. Can't tell you how many times I've died due to almost, but not quite, hobbling my way out of a big lightning bolt.

7 I think gets a lot of flak, but I don't think it's too bad. Keep in mind you can run near a flower if you haven't exploded one in a while, and GTFO before it explodes. Use that to clear a flower that's in a really crappy spot.

8 isn't so bad if you have a ranged interrupt. If you don't, either grab the defense sigil or get good at hauling ass, cause those kyngalds don't let up. I find the miniboss more difficult than the boss-boss, honestly. Her standard gives you about half a second to react before it eats you for breakfast. But this arena is a breather compared to the last one before you get it down.

9 is a whole 'nother can of worms, and is the one I get stuck on the most often (as it probably should be), but something that was suggested by someone here ages ago that helped me a lot with my first clear was this:

On the boss, during the crystal phase, if you voluntarily fall down after his second wall blast (where the DOT up top gets pretty bad), you'll have to deal with the crematorial guard below, but the speed of the DOT up top will reset and you should be able to get the remaining crystals down.

I can't sleep, so enjoy the word vomit and I hope it helps you instead of discouraging you. Good luck in there! And don't be afraid to put the controller down, or back away from the computer if you're getting stressed. You can come back later, it'll still be there.

Don't forget to dance on Voriak Solkyn's corpse when you kill him on vet, too. For good luck. (:

Anacario wrote: »

I got to the final boss of the first arena without dying at all, and while I didn't beat him, I got pretty far! I got him down to 30% before he finally hit me too hard before I could heal. While I didn't beat him, I felt like the whole arena was VERY easy. Is the rest of vMA like that? If it is, I think I might be able to actually beat this with some practice!

I'm sorry i have to tell you, that if you were not able to do the first boss you definitely have to rethink your build.
There are plenty of guides for every class out there, but be carefull. A lot of them are meant for people who already beat it, but are looking for a build to improve their speed with.
Those builds will definitely not work for someone that is not familiar with vMSA because almost all of them rely on bursting the enemy and for that they don't have a lot of heal.

The next thing you have to have in mind are your CP. Even so it is absolutely possible to beat it with low CP i still recommend at least 360 of them, as it will make your life a lot easier.

If you could provide us with more info about your build, we could give you advise what to change.

And btw: Thanks for a vMSA post that isn't about whining and nerfing